day's
important proceedings.

Whatever the movements back and forth, or the absence of movement, by
the Spanish ships during the night, at 7.10 A.M. the next day, May
12th, while Sampson's division was still engaged with the forts at San
Juan, they were close to Martinique, "four miles from Diamond Rock," a
detached islet at its southern end. The next entry, the first for the
sea-day of May 13th, is: "At 12.20 P.M. lost sight of Martinique." As
the land there is high enough to be visible forty or fifty miles under
favorable conditions, and as the squadron on its way to Curacao
averaged 11 knots per hour, it seems reasonable to infer that the
Spanish Admiral, having received news of the attack on San Juan,
though possibly not of the result, had determined upon a hasty
departure and a hurried run to the end of his journey, before he could
be intercepted by Sampson, the original speed of whose ships was
inferior to that of his own, and whom he knew to be hampered by
monitors.

The Spaniards did not take coal at Martinique. This may have been due
to refusal by the French officials to permit it, according to a common
neutral rule which allows a neutral only to give enough to reach the
nearest national port. As the ships still had enough to reach Curacao,
they had more than enough to go to Puerto Rico. It may very well be,
also, that Cervera, not caring to meet Sampson, whose force, counting
the monitors, was superior to his own, thought best to disappear at
once again from our knowledge. He did indeed prolong his journey to
Santiago, if that were his original destination, by nearly two hundred
miles, through going to Curacao; not to speak of the delay there in
coaling. But, if the Dutch allowed him to take all that he wanted, he
would in his final start be much nearer Cuba than at Martinique, and
he would be able, as far as fuel went, to reach either Santiago,
Cienfuegos, or Puerto Rico, or even Havana itself,--all which
possibilities would tend to perplex us. It is scarcely probable,
however, that he would have attempted the last-named port. To do so,
not to speak of the greater hazard through the greater distance,
would, in case of his success, not merely have enabled, but invited,
the United States to concentrate its fleet in the very best position
for us, where it would not only have "contained" the enemy, but have
best protected our own base at Key West.

In the absence of certain knowledge, conjectural opinions, s